Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the language worksheet reviewing reading comprehension, sequencing and following written directions. The math sheet reviews grouping, skip counting and odd/even numbers. This homework is due on Friday, September 29th.

REMINDER…In our program, there is DAILY and WEEKLY homework. DAILY homework is to study our weekly Word Wall Words (spelling), each day, in preparation for the test each Friday. Each Monday, your child writes the assigned words into his/her agenda. Your child must also read for 20 minutes (or more) every day. WEEKLY homework is made up of a language activity and a math activity and is assigned each Friday. The weekly homework is due to be handed in on the following Friday.

NOTE TO PARENTS - Volunteers needed for October 4th (PM) field trip.

We will be going on a field trip on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 4th, to the Northern District Library to attend a workshop with a Canadian book illustrator. We will be leaving right after lunch (12:30), walking up to Yonge and Eglinton and returning by approximately 3:00. If you would like to join us on this trip, please email me. We will need about 4 parent volunteers.

Important Dates:

September 26 - Picture Day

September 28 - Terry Fox Run

October 3 - Curriculum Night (time to be announced)

October 4 (PM) - Trip to Northern District Library - art workshop

October 6 - P. A. Day - no classes

October 9 - Thanksgiving - no classes

News for September 22

News for September 22

This week the students wrote a class book about Canada, made “Ojo de dios” crafts with yarn and even had a letter we wrote together about respect read aloud on the school’s morning announcements!

In math, the class continued to review skip counting each day, but now with different starting points. For example, count by tens starting at 6. The children used skip counting by two and making groups of two to help them determine if a number is odd or even. They used skip counting by ten to begin to understand the place value concepts of our number system and reviewed how to use ten frames to help with counting. Did you know that you can make any number in the world with just ten digits? The digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are very powerful because the value of the digit depends on the place that you put it.

I wrote a story about our class with everyone's name in it. The children wanted to read the story but there were some problems. If the story had no spaces between the words, it was impossible to read. If the story had no capital letters and no periods, it was also very difficult to read. So the students worked to add capital letters on names and at the beginning of sentences and periods at the end of sentences. We don't want to read in a world without capital letters and periods! :-) The class also practised following written directions and sequencing sentences. By rewriting the sentences they practised how to print perfect sentences. 

The class learned about time capsules and how they are used to give people in the future a glimpse of what life was like in a previous time. First we watched an old “Looney Tunes” cartoon to help explain what a time capsule is. Then we talked about making our own time capsule! The children each made a book about his/herself, recording facts like age, height and wishes for the future. After the books were assembled, we wrote a letter to “The Future Room 204” explaining all the activities we have done so far this year. Finally, we sealed the books and class letter into a box to be opened on June 28, 2018, the last day of the school year. It will be interesting to see the kinds of things that changed and those that didn’t. Here is a link to the cartoon: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3bvb6s

In social studies, the class learned more about Canada. The children created maps showing the 10 provinces and 3 territories, the cities Toronto and Ottawa (Canada’s capital city). We also collected some interesting facts about Canada. Did you know that Lacrosse is the national game of Canada? Finally each child created a page with one fact and we assembled these pages into a class book.

The students learned about a traditional craft from Mexico called “Ojo de Dios” or “god’s eyes”. These are considered to be good luck and are made using wood and yarn. First the children glued two popsicle sticks together in the form of an X. Then they experimented with winding different coloured yarns around the X to create the finished craft. These are now on display inside our classroom.

The class discussed the word “respect” and what it means. As a class, we wrote a letter to our vice-principal, Ms. Robertson, to explain our understanding of respect (since it is the TDSB character trait for September). She liked our letter so much that she read our letter on the morning announcements.

Books read aloud this week:

Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth by Sanjay Patel

Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose

Colour My Canada By Eliana Diaz

Terry Fox - A Story of Hope by Maxine Trottier

Follow the Line by Laura Ljungkvist

The 3 Billy Goats Gruff

Here are the videos of the plays the students performed this week.

GROUP FOUR

GROUP TWO

GROUP THREE

GROUP ONE

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the “All About Me” language worksheet. The children are also to practise each day, skip counting orally by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 25’s. A 100 chart was sent home with your child to help with this practice. (We timed the class doing this skip counting practice together and it takes only 2 minutes!) Skip counting is a strategy that helps your child count faster. Please keep this 100 chart at home for your child to reference in the future. The completed “All About Me” worksheet is due on Friday, September 21st. (We will be compiling these sheets into a binder to create a class book, for all the children to read about their fellow students.)

REMINDER…In our program, there is DAILY and WEEKLY homework. DAILY homework is to study our weekly Word Wall Words (spelling), each day, in preparation for the test each Friday. Each Monday, your child writes the assigned words into his/her agenda. Your child must also read for 20 minutes (or more) every day. WEEKLY homework is made up of a language activity and a math activity and is assigned each Friday. The weekly homework is due to be handed in on the following Friday.

NOTE TO PARENTS - PLEASE READ

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the planned reorganization of the English primary classes has been postponed until next week. We are hoping to have the reorganization done by Wednesday, September 20th. Because of this reorganization, some students will be leaving Room 204 and going to another classroom. Parents of the children who will be leaving our class, will be phoned by either Mrs. Farrelly (principal) or Ms. Robertson (vice-principal) by September 20th. If you have any questions about this, please contact me or the school office.

Important Dates:

September 20 - Reorganization of the primary classes (some children will leave our class).

September 26 - Picture Day

September 28 - Terry Fox Run

October 3 - Curriculum Night (time to be announced)

October 6 - P. A. Day - no classes

October 9 - Thanksgiving - no classes

(*For all holiday and P. A. Day dates, please go to the "calendar" section of the Toronto District School Board website at tdsb.on.ca.)

News for September 15

News for September 15

The first full week of school had the children learning more about numbers, creating line art and performing in plays!

In language, the class talked about how stories can be sorted into three types: fiction (not true), non-fiction (true) and near fiction (a combination of fiction and non-fiction). The class talked about reading skills. We discussed how being able to “decode” or read text is not enough…the reader needs to remember and understand what is read (reading comprehension). We sorted the 26 letters of the alphabet into 5 vowels and 21 consonants and reviewed letter sounds (phonemes). The class then read a short fiction text and answered questions about the story to show their understanding. If the student does not know the answer to the question right away rereading the text is an excellent strategy to help.

Each child has a treasure jar in his/her desk to store little treasures that they find. This week the class made labels for their jars. (Children always find little things that they want to keep and this treasure jar is a safe place in which to keep them.)

The four drama groups worked very hard this week to rehearse their plays of “The 3 Billy Goats Gruff”. They chose costumes and practised their lines and helped each other to do his/her best. The groups performed the plays in front of the class and the plays were videotaped. These videos can be seen in a separate posting.

After reading the book “The Secret Life of Squirrels”, the class learned some facts about squirrels. Did you know that squirrels live everywhere in the world except Australia and Antarctica and can be as small as 10 cm or as large as 1 metre? The students then practised writing sentences by picking 3 squirrel facts and writing about them. We also watched a video of the author of the book and how she photographs squirrels for her books. Here is the link:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1124882-bedford-woman-puts-squirrels-in-the-picture

In math, each child created their own 100 chart by writing the numbers from 1 to 100. The class talked a lot about skip counting. Skip counting is a math strategy that helps to count a large number of things faster. One activity had the children tried drawing as many happy faces as they could in one minute, then grouped them by 2’s or 5’s to help them count how many they drew.  The students learned how to play a “Guess the Secret Number” game. Using the hundreds chart, they track if the guessed number is smaller or bigger than the target number, slowly narrowing down the options until the correct number is chosen.

In art, the class learned about the most common element of art, the line. They each drew a long, curving line and then coloured in the spaces. We talked about how artists give titles to their work, and then each student chose a title for his/her work. The students then each wrote a reflection on the art by writing the artist’s name, title and what he/she thought was done well on the finished art. This artwork and the artist’s reflections are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

The students learned more about our country’s national anthem, “O Canada”. Did you know that every country in the world has its own national song or anthem? We reviewed the English words to help us sing the anthem correctly each morning. The class also learned the American Sign Language (ASL) signs used. As well, the students learned the ASL signs for “thank you” and “sorry”.

The students learned a trick to do with a paper clip and a piece of paper. First they learned the history of the standard paper clip. Did you know it was invented in 1867, by Samuel Fey in the USA? The object of this lesson was to challenge the students to do something that is tricky to learn. Some children get it right away and others have to keep trying. Some become teachers and help others. In the end they all managed to learn how to do the paper clip trick and hopefully learned a bit about perseverance. Here is a link to a how-to video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cCRRqPYIWsY

Finally, the class attended an assembly in the gym hosted by our vice principal, Ms. Robertson, to review the safety rules at our school. 

Books read aloud this week:

The Secret Life of Squirrels by Nancy Rose

Books! By Murray McCain

Squirrelly Gray by James Kochalka

The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper

Update from Ms. R

Welcome to Room 204! 

In our program, there is DAILY and WEEKLY homework. DAILY homework is to study our weekly Word Wall Words (spelling), each day, in preparation for the test each Friday. Each Monday, your child writes the assigned words into his/her agenda. Your child must also read for 20 minutes (or more) every day. WEEKLY homework is made up of a language activity and a math activity and is assigned each Friday. The weekly homework is due to be handed in on the following Friday.

No formal weekly homework was assigned this week, as it was the first week of school.

NOTE TO PARENTS - PLEASE READ

Due to the unanticipated high number of students in grades 1, 2 and 3, there will be a reorganization of the primary grade classes. This reorganization will take place on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th. Because of this reorganization, some students will be leaving Room 204 and going to another classroom. Parents of the children who will be leaving our class, will be phoned by either Mrs. Farrelly (principal) or Ms. Robertson (vice-principal) on September 15th. If you have any questions about this, please contact me or the school office.

Important Dates:

September 15 - Reorganization of the primary classes (some children will leave our class).

September 26 - Picture Day

September 28 - Terry Fox Run

October 3 - Curriculum Night (time to be announced)

October 6 - P. A. Day - no classes

October 9 - Thanksgiving - no classes

(*For all holiday and P. A. Day dates, please go to the "calendar" section of the Toronto District School Board website at tdsb.on.ca.)

News for September 5

News for September 8

We spent a wonderful first four days together this week! The children wrote stories, played math games, painted pictures and even began to rehearse a play...

In language, the children reviewed the 26 basic printed letter forms of the English alphabet. They practiced writing the CAPITAL, or uppercase, letters and the lowercase letters. We paid particular attention to the lowercase letters as these are written in three different places on the paper. The 7 tall letters, b, d, f, h, k, l, t are the same height as all the capital letters. The 5 below-the-line letters, g, j, p, q, y, begin in the middle of the line space and travel below the line. The 14 middle letters a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z, begin in the middle of the line space and stop at the bottom line.

In art, the class painted pictures of characters and things that they wanted to write about in a story. Then the students each wrote stories about the paintings that they created. After writing the rough copy, each child edited his/her story with me. I will be typing all the stories and they will be displayed with the artwork in the hallway outside of our classroom.

In math, the children reviewed the proper way to write the single digits from 0-9. We began to discuss the concept of place value and how these ten digits can make any number up to infinity! We talked about the 100 chart as a tool to help add and subtract and used this chart to play a game. We discussed the strategy of skip counting and focussed on skip counting by 5's and 10's to 100. At the end of the week, groups of students played the classic board game, "Snakes and Ladders" which is a math game based on an upside down 100 chart.

The children are learning the names and order of the months of the year and they learned a song to help them remember.

The students created large "Room 204 alphabet" letters out of paper. We will use these large letters to create titles for our displays in the hallway.

Finally, the children began a theatre project. We are going to put on plays based on the fairy tale, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". The class chorally read the script (story) together and then wrote down which character he/she would like to play. The class will be divided into smaller groups next week to act out the play.

Books read aloud this week:

The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

The Book That Eats People by John Perry

This is My Book by Mark Pete

Do Not Open This Book! By Michaela Muntean

Welcome Back!

Welcome! This is the blog for Room 204. Please check here every week to see photos/videos and to read about what your child learned each week during the school year. I'm looking forward to meeting the children on Tuesday!